Katie Compton has confirmed that she has parted company with the Rabo-Giant Off Road team after just one season. The eight-time US cyclocross champion joined the Dutch team last year as both a moutainbike and cyclocross rider, but found that combining the two disciplines at the elite level detracted from her performances in both.
“I've left Rabobank-Giant Off Road to focus my energy on ‘cross only,” Compton told VeloNation. “I was spreading myself too thin with racing a full mtb schedule and then going right into cross and it just got to be too much. I wasn't riding as well as I wanted to on the mtb or the cross bike and something had to give.
“The team and I decided it would be best to part ways early so I can focus my energy on cross,” she explained. “I will be racing cross next season but haven't planned a race schedule just yet. Right now I'm taking some much needed down time so I can recover and be ready to race again in the fall.”
With her hanging up her mountainbike, Compton has also confirmed that she will not be part of the United States team for the Olympic Games in London this summer. With the combination of cyclocross and mountainbike making her performances suffer, she explained that she was unlikely to make the team anyway.
“Our team hasn't been named yet but they were looking at the WC rankings after first 4 races to select the team,” she said. “I was was too far down in those rankings to qualify and not riding well enough so Olympics wasn't an issue for me. I think the team is named in June.”
In Compton’s place for the rest of the year, the Rabobank team has struck a deal with Brainwash, the sponsor of the three-woman cyclocross team that includes 2010/11 World Cup winner Sanne van Paassen. As well as the Dutch hairdressing chain coming on board as a sponsor for the next three years, van Paassen and teammate Sabrina Stultiëns will be joining the team on June 19th.
"Sabrina is young and will continue to evolve,” said the team’s directeur sportif Jeroen Blijlevens, “and we will help her in this. She has shown some good things, so I have every confidence. Sanne won the cyclocross World Cup last year, and she is also very strong on the road. She is an immediate boost for our team.”
With the team already featuring World champion Marianne Vos, and French prodigy Pauline Ferrand-Prevot, Rabobank-Giant will be fielding four women in the elite cyclocross season this coming winter.